By request, I have written another access plugin. This one eliminates the “private” and “logged in users” options leaving only “public.”
That’s all it does. Not much else to say but download here.
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I plan on using Elgg in a K12 environment, particularly my fifth graders. In order to do this in a manner that complies with our school policies and culture, I had to make some changes. Since the Elgg environment is unmoderated, I had to remove all public access to content.
Elgg’s “Walled Garden” does part of the job in that it disables public registration, but any content that users created had the option of public access which would be visible to individuals not logged in.
I created a plugin with a view override that removes this option. Now users have the choice of private or logged in users (along with any friends’ collections) when setting the access to content.
Still, access to the site could be had by RSS feeds and OpenDD. I’m not sure how big an issue this is, but I’d like to be able to do it. Dave Tosh suggested, I created an override of owners’ block eliminating those options. I believe access to these can be had unless I delete the rss and opendd views from the core. That will work, but I wonder if I could create an override of those views that disables them. I plan on looking into this.
- No links to subscribe to feeds
I combined my initial plugin, with Marcus Povey’s “Walled Garden.” With “Higher Walls,” not only is registration disabled, but so is public access. Links to RSS and OpenDD feeds are also disabled.
Another issue remains. If access to content is restricted to logged in users, then the Latest Activity on the default main page will remain as a header with nothing below it. I used Customindex plugin to change the mainpage to a login page by pasting:
$form_body = “<p><label>” . elgg_echo(‘username’) . “<br />” . elgg_view(‘input/text’, array(‘internalname’ => ‘username’, ‘class’ => ‘login-textarea’)) . “</label><br />”;
$form_body .= “<label>” . elgg_echo(‘password’) . “<br />” . elgg_view(‘input/password’, array(‘internalname’ => ‘password’, ‘class’ => ‘login-textarea’)) . “</label><br />”;
$form_body .= elgg_view(‘input/submit’, array(‘value’ => elgg_echo(‘login’))) . “</p>”;
$form_body .= “<p>” . elgg_echo(”) . “</a> <a href=\”". $vars['url'] .”account/forgotten_password.php\”>” . elgg_echo(‘user:password:lost’) . “</a></p>”;
echo elgg_view(‘input/form’, array(‘body’ => $form_body, ‘action’ => “”. $vars['url'] .”action/login”));
into customindex/views/default/customindex/content.php.
Further modifications could be done on the custom index, but this certainly serves the purpose. It is comparable to what one would encounter in a password protected WordPressMU blog.
Now I am convinced that Elgg can be modified to work within the K12 environment. Higher Walls and removing rss and opendd views directories restricts access to the community very effectively. A better solution would disabling rss and opendd through the plugin rather than deleting core files.
Now that these matters appear worked out, I plan to focus more on Elgg in terms of pedagogy. Nonetheless, I will tweak “Higher Walls” over time.
Thanks to:
- Marcus Povey
- Boris Glumpler
- Jens von der Heydt
- Diego Andrés Ramírez Aragón
Jeremey Ronnel from Elbee just released an autosubscribegroup plugin. This plugin automatically subscribes new users to a group or groups designated by tha administrator.
Installation is simple. FTP the unzipped folder to the mod directory of your Elgg installation, then activate it through Tolls Administration. Next click on more information.
A field appears for entering group ID numbers. You may enter as many as you like separating the numbers with a comma. Here’s where to find a group’s ID. Go to the group page in your site and look at the url in the address bar.
The group ID number appears after the word groups in the url. Type in the desired group numbers and click save. Now all new users will be subscribe automatically to the desired group or groups.
This plugin provides much sought after functionality. Many have asked for the ability to autosubscribe new members to groups of common interest to all members. It also helps give users unfamiliar with Elgg a starting point.
Tags: autosubscribegroup, Elgg, plugin
Jade Dominguez of TastySeed has created TidyPics, a new photo gallery for Elgg 1.0. After a slew of releases, Version 1.04 seems to have slain most of the bugs. Once installed via ftp to the mod folder and enabled in the admin interface, a new option appears in the menus:
Select Photos and you get the following page.
Click to enlarge
The first time, you are prompted to create an album with options for title, caption, tags, and access. Note the owner’s block to the left with options to view your, your friends’, and all site photo albums. Once the album is created, you are taken to a page for uploading files.
Again you have options for title, caption, and tags. Access is governed by the album. Once you upload the image, you are brought to the Album view.
Note that you have options to make comments on the album. To view an image, click on it and it appears full sized. Once you open the image view, you have the opotion to edit or delete the picture. If you select edit, you are given the option of making the image the album cover.
Tidypics has a clean simple, and easy to use interface. Jade has also created a support area in the Elgg Community where he offers assistance and seeks input. He plans to continue to develop TidyPics with new enhancements in the future.
Creative Commons License
Openedweb by Stephen J. O’Connor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.